The Anlan Style of Thai Food

By Liu Dongli

“Basil Ultraviolet,” a wine with Basil leaves; “Tom Yum Forest,” a wine with lemon leaves and lemongrass which tastes like Tom Yum Soup;“Ruby,” a wine with rose snow....

All these fancy names came from a Thai girl at Red Basil Thai Restaurant, who rendered the giant menu her own creative touch.

This Thai girl, Wipawee Kruakam, has a Chinese name Anlan. A decade ago, she had yearned to be in the city of Wuhan in China. In 2007, she studied at Khon Kaen University in Thailand, where she met her Chinese teacher from Wuhan University, from whom she learned about the vast East Lake,the beautiful romantic cherry blossoms, and the ceaselessly rolling Yangtze River.

During the summer vacation in her junior year, she came to Wuhan University for the first time for a two-month exchange program. In 2011, Anlan returned to Wuhan University to pursue her post-graduate degree in business management. Three years later, she learned by chance that a Thai restaurant called Red Basil was opening in Wuhan. She applied and successfully became the “cultural ambassador” of the restaurant, acting as a translator between the Thai chefs and the Chinese customers and staff.Since then, Anlan has started a whole new life, and she has become determined to introduce Thai foods to China.

In order to make the customers know and accept Thai food,Anlan racked her brains. “Names of the dishes should be crystal clear instead of being confusing or unintelligible.” Anlan says this because when she first came to China, she was confused by many dish names. “Where is the fish when the name is ‘Fishy Pork’?” “Oh my God, what is‘Couple’s Lung Slices’? Is that even edible?” “Are there Ants in‘Ants in the Tree’?”… Anlan still felt astonished when recalling all these.

So, Anlan has been very careful with the translation of dish names. She intends to make the names easy to remember and understand, blending Chinese culture and Chinese people’s customary understanding into it, so that it sounds enticing and inviting. Not long ago, the restaurant launched a deepfried shrimp dish, which is made from “Tamarind” juice from the Thai fruit of the same name. The juice is added to the fried big shrimp, making the shrimp taste more delicious. Anlan named it“Tamarind Fried Big Shrimp.”

Anlan understands that China has an extensive and profound food culture, which includes various ways of cooking such as stir-frying, steaming, braising,stewing, deep-frying, frying,roasting, and so on. Therefore, in order to accurately translate the dish names, Anlan often refers to her Chinese dictionary as well as her Chinese colleagues over and over again. Sometimes she also consults her guests and passes on accurate opinions to the chefs so that a mutual understanding can be reached over the form and content of a dish.

加了罗勒叶的酒品，她为其取名叫“罗勒紫外线”；带有柠檬叶、香茅的，类似冬阴功味道的酒，她译成“冬阴森林”；有玫瑰雪的酒被翻译成“红宝石”……

在红罗勒泰餐厅，厚厚的菜单成了一个泰国女孩的创作园地。

她叫安兰，泰国人，十多年前便对武汉深怀向往。2007年，她进入泰国孔敬大学学习，她的汉语老师来自中国的武汉大学。从老师那里，她知道了烟波浩渺的东湖、唯美浪漫的樱花，奔腾万里的长江……

大三那年假期，她第一次来到武汉大学，进行为期两个月的学习交流； 2011年，安兰再次来到武汉大学，攻读企业管理专业研究生。三年后一个偶然的机会，武汉一家叫红罗勒的泰餐厅开业，她应聘成为餐厅的文化大使，担任泰国大厨与中国顾客之间的翻译。从此，安兰开始了一段全新的生活。她决意要把泰国的美食传递到中国来。

如何让顾客更好地理解、接受泰国菜，安兰费了不少心思。“菜名应该让人一目了然，不能让人不知所云。”刚来中国时，安兰被不少菜名弄得云里雾里，闹了不少笑话。“明明写的是‘鱼香肉丝’，可哪里有鱼呢？”“天啊，‘夫妻肺片’是怎么做的？能吃吗？”“‘蚂蚁上树’里有蚂蚁吗？”……至今安兰回忆起来，还是那么诧异。

鉴于自己的亲身经历，她在取菜名时非常用心，使翻译出来的菜名尽量浅显易懂。她把中国文化和中国人对菜名的习惯理解溶入菜名里，勾起客人的好奇和食欲。前不久，餐厅推出一道油炸虾，做法是用泰国一种叫“罗望”的水果挤出的酸汁，淋在炸过的大头虾上，使虾的味道更加鲜美。安兰给它取名“罗望油炸大头虾”。

安兰认识到，中国饮食文化博大精深，爆炒、清炒、蒸、焖、炖、炸、煎……各种烹饪方式大相径庭。为了准确翻译菜品，安兰不得不一遍遍地翻阅词典、请教中国同事。有时候，她还会征求客人意见，把准确的意见传递给主厨，确保认识统一，使菜品的形式与内容完美相接。

以安兰的中文水平，回泰国当一名教师，做一名中泰文化交流大使，并不是难事，可她并不想这样。“我喜欢中国的生活，也喜欢与中国人打交道。将来，即使回到家乡，我也会选择在一家华人工厂工作。”

后来我们才知道，安兰对中国的情愫是打小种下的。安兰的外婆是中国人，她和妹妹从小就在外婆怀里聆听一个个中国故事。如今，妹妹也学成了中国通，在家乡的一所高中担任中文老师。◆

Anlan (right) with Thai actress Mo Amena (middle) in Red Basil安兰（右）和泰图女明星Mo Amena（中）在餐厅合影

With her language proficiency in Chinese, Anlan may easily become a teacher and ambassador for Chinese-Thai cultural exchange in Thailand, but that’s not what she hopes for. “I like the life here in China. I also enjoy making friends with Chinese people. In the future, even if I return to my hometown, I will choose to work in a Chinese factory.”

We learned later that Anlan’s feelings towards China were actually planted at a very young age. Her grandmother was Chinese, and she told her and her sister a lot of Chinese stories when they were little. Today, her younger sister has also learned Chinese well and is now a Chinese teacher at a high school in her hometown.◆